A thank you from Brooke Childrey

From Brooke Childrey, Mount Rainier's Museum Curator:

I wanted to send a note out to say thank you to all those who made it possible for me to achieve NCR Employee of the Year. I did not achieve this award alone, several people contributed to the success and professionalism of the curatorial program this year.

All of the work accomplished in curatorial was possible because of volunteers Marcy Partridge, Carol and Jim Miltimore, Rose Evans, Connie Wilkerson, Mary Beth Heskett, Mary Dilligan, Renata Chew, John Chao, Loren Schmidt, and John and Jane Titland; SCA's Shayna Atwood and Paige Bartley; and all of the staff and retired employees (including Rick Kirchner and Bob McIntyre) who participated in the photograph identification sessions. Without them; their flexibility and willingness to do whatever needed to be done; only a fraction of the accomplishments that were achieved would have been completed.

Assistance from park staff came from many programs including David Gunderson who assisted with the natural history specimen conservation treatment program; Jim, Jimmy, and Rich who repeatedly repaired and ultimately replaced parts of the HVAC system at curatorial so that we are now no longer experiencing temperature swings from the low 50s to the 90s in a single day; the carpenters who responded to, among other requests, my request to replace the plate glass in the JVC exhibits with tempered glass enabling us to protect the specimens and visitors and re-use these exhibits at Ohana and Sunrise, and Michael Clegg who spent 4 weeks identifying and labeling flood documentation photographs.

All of this cross-program teamwork and volunteer assistance is what added up to a successful and professional curatorial program at the park and led to the preservation, protection, and accessibility of the park's museum collection.

Thank you all for making this happen. My name may be on the plaque, but you all are, in my opinion, NCR Employees of the Year.

Brooke